Down by three points at the half, the Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawk basketball team rallied in the second half Thursday night at home to down Southern Union 85-79. The win improved JDCC to 2-4 this season and ended their four-game losing streak.
The Warhawks trailed Southern Union 35-32 after the first half of play before using runs of 7-0 and 6-0 in the second half to propel them to a 53-44 scoring advantage to get the win by 16 points.
JDCC had six players score in the win with four being in double figures and three scoring more than 20 points.
Christian Jones led with way 22 points and 11 rebounds and he finished with a double-double. Chris Oden also had 22 points in the win and added three steals while Mikwese Claybourne added 21 points and four assists. Anthony Bell had 12 points in the win followed by eight points from Quann Threatt and two points from Michael Hutchins.
“We just did what it took to finish the game,” JDCC head coach Allen Gainer said. “We talked about all of our losses so far have been due to offensive rebounds or turnovers. We had only one turnover in the second half and they had 11 total with five in the second half. So that was the deciding factor as we rebounded the ball and we did what it took to win.”
Gainer said several players stepped up in the win Thursday.
“It is like I told them in the locker room that if we are picking a player of the game, who would it be because we had so many people make big plays and such big moments,” he said. “Anthony Bell eliminated their best player as good as you could eliminate him. With Mikwese scoring the way he did and Chris scoring in the game he did…and Keaynon, on the tip out that we got on the offensive rebound, was probably the play the changed the game to me. It is just a great team win and everybody contributed to it in some way against a really good team.”
JDCC shot 12-for-22 from the free throw line while Southern Union was 16-for-20.
JDCC was 2-for-7 in the first half and 10-for-15 in the second while Southern Union was 6-for-8 in the first half and 10-for-12 in the second half.
JDCC will be off until Saturday, Jan. 4, when they travel to Marion Military for a 3:30 p.m. tip. The Warhawks will be back at home on Thursday, Jan. 9, when they host Bishop State at 7 p.m. The game with Bishop State will be the first conference game of the season for the Warhawks.